Stray Dog

I used to want my gold hardware all nice and shiny, but recently, I've really come to appreciate the look of Keith Richards' aged 355s, and some fantastic vintage Epiphone Sheratons I have seen. Anyway, is there a way I could age the gold hardware on my guitar, other than playing it nonstop of 20 years?

First off.... do NOT reccomend I buy HB-sized p90s! I have tried that, and I want REAL p90s in my sheraton, not just for the sound but also for the looks. And don't bother reccomending I buy a casino or any other knew guitar either... I wouldn't normally consider this because conventional wisdom is that it can't be done, hence the HB-sized p90s. But I have seen it done before, on a sunburst sheraton which was on ebay a while ago. It had black dog-ears. It wasn't a PERFECT fit, as there were some hairline gaps beside the pickups, but Im ok with that. So first, does anyone happen to remember this guitar? If you could link me to any information or pics of this guitar I saw on ebay a while back, that would be great!! So what can you tell me about how a dog-ear can fit into a HB route? If it can't be done, please tell me why. Will I need to do any routing myself? Any information appreciated!

Im rather new to this guitar builing shindig. What Im working on right now is completely re-doing a cheap 335 copy - all new hardwear, refret, and refinishing. Anyway, the guitar has some rather ugly abalone dot inlays which don't work very well with the rosewood fingerboard, which isn't very dark. How hard would it be to remove the dot inlays and replace them with new MoP ones? Is it worth doing myself? What would I need to do?

Hi! Im planning to convert an old acoustic into an electric, basically by adding a humbucker. I will also be upgrading other hardware such as tuners. Im thinking I want to give it a trapeze tailpiece, such as those on hollowbody jazz guitars. I am looking at this one, which I already have on a semi-hollow guitar. http://store.guitarfetish.com/caophatagofo.html The thing Im wondering about is if the angle will be big enough, as the acoustic has a much lower bridge.... Will this work?

So, if I keep sanding eventually all the wood will turn 'white' like this? (in theory) It doesn't look nowhere as nice as the sealed wood, so if I put a sealer over it will it all go 'nice' again? Im looking at the area on the back of the cutaway bout I've sanded away, that wood looks really nice.

I have begun sanding down the finish of a semi-hollow guitar I plan to remake. I have just got at it with some coarse sand paper, which has worked fine so far. But Its gonna take forever, what should I use to speed it up? I don't want to buy any expensive equipment. Here are some pics, they are not very good. If you look carefully you can see some of the sanded wood is a different colour to the rest... its sort of white.... it happens in patches, near the binding and by the headstock. Does anyone know why this is? Will it go away when I go down to a finer grade of paper? Im not sure how Im gonna finish the guitar yet, but Im thinking I might for for a natural finish, in which case this is a concern.

Yeah warmoth is where im talking about where it seems a bit too pricey.... though they have got what im looking for, which i cant find anywhere else. I've looked at stemac.com, but i want a 3-aside headstock, he seems to only do 6-aside except on his thru-neck (which i dont want).

Ok quite simple.... can you point me to some good online stores for buying guitar necks.... I've found that one big one, but with the black finish I want, it will be horendously expensive. Im looking for a neck with a gibson-style headstock, in black. Where do I look to buy one?

Yeah Im looking at the picture now... but I aint got a scaner

Ahh yes of course, just hadn't seen that abbreviation yet is all! No, I dont know what bridge yet... as I said its just preliminary drawings.

I havent decided on woods or pickup brands, this is just a preliminary sketch. Well at least im confident I love the look of it! Forgive my ingorance, but what is TOM?

Feedback aint an issue. Im used to playing hollow-bodies, in fact I was thining about making this guitar hollow. Again thanks for the help. And yes this guitar is going to have a seperate top I think.

Ok I've drawn up a plan for the guitar I'm going to make. The basic shape is that of a les paul, but with different cutaway shapes. The right hand one (by the low e) is in the rough shape of the corresponding cutaway on the telecaster if you get my drift... not much of a cutaway really. The left hand cutaway (by the high e) is the rough shape of a 335 cutaway, but not so deep. The body itself is gonna be quite small, perhaps even smaller than a LP. It will have a regular 24-fret neck, and a 3-aside symetrical headstock, in black, with cream binding, and some sort of decal. The body also will be black with cream binding around the edges, and the top will be a 'translucent' black so you can see the shape of the woodgrain through it. It will have two cream p90 pickups, controlled by 1 volume and 1 tone control, and a 3-way selector switch in the lp-position. It will have a trapeze tailpiece. All hardware will be in gold! How do you people like the sound of this guitar im gonna make? I sure love it!

Thanks for the prompt replies people! Ok I guess I will settle for the cavity plates on the back. But does this mean I really have to drill little tunnels for the wires through the wood to get from one piece of electronics to another?

Ok I understand how it works with strats.... there are cavities under the scratchplate to houe the pots, pickups, etc and they are all linked up with wires. And with other guitars without scratchplates I understand too, the cavities are in the back, and are covered. Now would this work.... The main body has the cavities all quite open with the pickups etc in, and I have a top of another wood to basically cover it all up, with holes to fit the tone knobs and pickups through. And there are no plastic covers anywhere. That works right? Though I understand I wouldnt be able to ever change anything inside the guitar... The main body would be black, and the top a translucent black finish, with cream binding around the edges. Also, how do you link up all the cavities? I've seen pics of the backs of les pauls without the cavity covers on, with the selector switch on one side of the guitar and the pots on the other... where is the wire which connects these up?